Acronym 2011 Fall/Winter Collection Interview with Errolson Hugh

Throughout prototyping everyone who saw SS-CP1 had a similar question, ‘You’re not actually going to make that, are you?’. It developed out of Johanna and I messing around with dead stock fabric at the factory. We were just cutting things up and trying them on. Making things for our own personal use. The early capes immediately felt right, but I wasn’t sure they qualified as Acronym. Later, in Los Angeles, I showed one to Michaela and her reaction was the same as mine, ‘Weird, but somehow… great.’ Still later, and then back in Berlin, a friend (concept designer Stephen Platt) and I were discussing movement and posture, low and high ready position… stance (yeah, we talk about this kind of stuff all the time). I showed him a proto, and we had the idea to add Interops functionality to it. That’s when it really finally clicked.

In the end, what makes an Acronym piece, for me, is a very specific kind of balance, but it’s not something I can describe well with words. Technical as it may be, it can’t be reduced to a formula. So, no, SS-CP1 is not protective in the same way a jacket is. And, yes, it violates pretty much every design rule there is for technical outerwear. It is, however, totally Acronym. Absolutely. I was wearing mine today.